Saturday, August 11, 2012

I decided to watch the Rifftrax of the classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and was of course driven to reflections. Part of this reflection is possibly due to drinking way too much Match and suffering sleep deprivation!

I have mixed feelings on the movie, even as a kid I knew it had lots of flaws (Roald Dahl has a really odd way of telling stories that have an overwhelming wrongness too them) but I loved Willy Wonka. I suppose it might be a little bad that the only character I could relate to was the eccentric recluse played by Gene Wilder. I loved the whimsy of the movie but really kinda despised all the other character...and have an unholy desire to dropkick those horrifying Oompa Loompas...but my favorite part, the part of the movie that made me oh so happy as a child...was of course the everything is edible room.

I loved that room because it reminded me of one of the happiest things of my life...the Sugar Plum Tree

THE SUGAR-PLUM TREEby: Eugene Field (1850-1895)

AVE you ever heard of the Sugar-Plum Tree?

'T is a marvel of great renown!

It blooms on the shore of the Lollipop sea

In the garden of Shut-Eye Town;

The fruit that it bears is so wondrously sweet

(As those who have tasted it say)

That good little children have only to eat

Of that fruit to be happy next day.

When you 've got to the tree, you would have a hard time

To capture the fruit which I sing;

The tree is so tall that no person could climb

To the boughs where the sugar-plums swing!

But up in that tree sits a chocolate cat,

And a gingerbread dog prowls below--

And this is the way you contrive to get at

Those sugar-plums tempting you so:

You say but the word to that gingerbread dog

And he barks with such terrible zest

That the chocolate cat is at once all agog,

As her swelling proportions attest.

And the chocolate cat goes cavorting around

From this leafy limb unto that,

And the sugar-plums tumble, of course, to the ground--

Hurrah for that chocolate cat!

There are marshmallows, gumdrops, and peppermint canes,

With stripings of scarlet or gold,

And you carry away of the treasure that rains

As much as your apron can hold!

So come, little child, cuddle closer to me

In your dainty white nightcap and gown,

And I 'll rock you away to that Sugar-Plum Tree

In the garden of Shut-Eye Town.

One of my earliest memories was my mother reading me this poem and teaching me to lucid dream. I highly doubt she intended to teach me how to control my dreaming, but it has given me a lifetime of lucidity in my sleep and amazing adventures.

As I was tucked into bed she would read me this poem and we would plan out our noctural adventures in a world where everything is edible...Big Rock Candy Mountain ain't got nothing! So of course seeing a room where everything was food was seeing my dreams in something other my head. I believe this is the first time I saw a dream come true...literally!